Lifestyle Desk- Tomato is used in almost every other vegetable and curry in Indian kitchen. Tomato is considered essential for making the gravy thick, adding slight sourness to the taste and giving colour. But sometimes tomatoes run out at home or for some reason you do not want to use them. In such a situation, the question arises that how to make vegetable gravy thick and tasty without tomatoes? The easy answer to this is to use roasted gram flour. Gram flour not only gives good thickness to the gravy, but also enhances the taste of the vegetable when mixed with spices. The special thing is that you do not need any expensive or special material for this. Let us know how to make it.
Why is gram flour useful instead of tomato?
Gram flour is easily available in Indian kitchen. Frying it lightly and adding it to gravy can make its texture thick and creamy. Especially it can be used in vegetables like potato, peas, gourd, brinjal and mixed vegetables.
However, gram flour does not give sourness like tomato. Therefore, if you want light sourness in the gravy, you can add some lemon juice or dry mango powder as per requirement.
How to make thick gravy without tomatoes
Step 1-Fry the gram flour
First of all, put 1-2 spoons of gram flour in a small pan. Fry it on low flame while stirring continuously until it becomes light golden. Take care that the gram flour does not burn, otherwise the gravy may taste bitter.
Step 2-Prepare the base of spices
Heat some oil or ghee in another pan. Add cumin, finely chopped onion, ginger and garlic and fry. When the onion becomes golden, add turmeric, coriander powder, red chilli and spices of your choice.
Step 3-Add gram flour
Now prepare a smooth batter by adding some water to the roasted gram flour. Pour this solution slowly into the pan with spices and keep stirring continuously, so that lumps do not form.
Step 4-Add vegetables and water
Now add vegetables of your choice in it. Add water and salt as per requirement and cook on low flame. After some time the gravy will start thickening. If the gravy becomes too thick, you can add some hot water.
Follow these tips to make it tasty
- Frying the onions thoroughly adds flavor and depth to the gravy.
- Always fry gram flour on low flame.
- Instead of adding gram flour directly to hot gravy, mix it by dissolving it in water.
- For mild sourness, dry mango powder or lemon juice can be used.
- Some curd or cashew paste can also be added for creamy taste. While adding curd, keep the flame low, so that it does not curdle.
For which vegetables will this method work?
Gram flour gravy can be used in potato curry, brinjal curry, bottle gourd, peas and mixed veg. Especially when there are no tomatoes in the house and you have to prepare a thick vegetable in a hurry, then this method can be useful.
Keep in mind that gram flour is an option to thicken the gravy, but its taste will be different from tomato gravy. Therefore, balance the spices and sourness as per your choice. In this way, you can prepare delicious, thick and spicy vegetable at home even without tomatoes.
